The bitter winds of Northern Snow Mountain cut like knives as several tightly bundled figures trudged through the snow.
They were Xin Mu and his companions, here to study the ecology of the local Sandshrew and find out whether, as in the Alola Region,
an Ice-type regional form existed here.
Leading the way was Lü Ming's Mamoswine, which looked like a mammoth without a trunk. It was said that Mamoswine populations had been enormous during the ice age ten thousand years ago.
But as the climate changed, their numbers gradually dwindled.
Being Ice-types, some Mamoswine had even thawed out and awakened after spending ten thousand years frozen in the ice.
Now Mamoswine served as the group's trailblazer, its massive body carving a path through the snow.
"Squirtle...: (In weather like this, we should be hibernating, not heading deeper into the mountains.)"
Squirtle huddled inside its shell with only its eyes showing, its white breath forming tiny ice crystals around the opening.
At dinnertime, Squirtle emerged for some air and voiced its complaints about the bitter cold. Meownei ignored it and merely adjusted its earmuffs.
Keeping the ears warm was essential in winter. Exposing them to the air felt entirely different from tucking them beneath clothing, and even Pokémon experienced something similar.
They were inside a natural cave, gathered around a campfire as they set up their tents. Torracat, idling nearby, suddenly noticed something strange.
Not far from the cave entrance was a collapsed pit in the ice. A closer look revealed a statue standing silently within, half buried in ice and snow.
The statue stood roughly two meters tall and was carved entirely from some kind of milky-white jade. Its shape was familiar to a group of Pokémon researchers.
Arceus, the creator god of the Pokémon world.
After they spent